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, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:26:46
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Lemme first say thx to everyone that has done this before me and posted great stuff. Furthermore, lemme thank vvack directly for many good posts that i referenced before and during the job.
The day started at 11:30. Both axle nuts game off very easily with the 32mm socket from EEuro and a homemade breaker bar ($1 scrap pipe) from Home Depot. The lugs loosened up just as easily with the breaker bar on a ratchet.
I created shims for the A-arms (thx for this tip twinsaabs) using short carriage bolts and 3 fat nuts. Twinsaab has a much better idea for their shims but this is what i came up with staring at the hardware at home depot this am.
Next was the jacking of the car. Since i wanted to put the car on jack stands i was a bit confused as to how to do this since where i wanted to put them was the same point where the built in jacking points are. So i ended up jacking it from the front using he frame under the tranny/engine. Got it up and got the jack stands in place.
Now came the fun part, spring compressors. So first i had one on each spring, cranking away. finally realized that this wasn't right cuz the springs would never compressed correctly or fully. So that burned a lot of time. Then i got both compressors on one spring and compressed it as much as i could. Now, in hindsight it would appear that i was doing unnecessary work here since i had used the shims. but you live and learn.
So then came the URGENT posting for how to get the springs out. I looked at it a but more and realized that that just wasn't gonna happen that easily and ditched that idea. Luckily that was the right choice since i had wasted a good hour or more at this point screwing with the springs.
I removed the bolts from the lower A-arm and the lower shock. Swung the whole brake assembly to the back and with the muscle of a friend got the axle to pop out. Of course at this point wondering "How the F and i gonna get the new one in there"? :)
Pulled out the axle and watched all the liquid grease pour from the inner driver. Grabbed the reman from the box and packed the tripod with a TON of hi temp bearing grease. Covered that up with a Home Depot bag (nice recycling huh!) and slid it back into the tranny. Reattached the clamp and then back to the hub to try and get it in.
It went in only slightly but enuf to get the axle nut on. But, stupid me thought it would be a good idea to hammer the end of the axle to try and get it to slide out further thru the hub. Well as you can guess i messed up the threads. DUMB! I eventually got the thing to thread (on top of some blue loctite). It took a bit of effort to get the nut on as i am sure i was rethreading it as i went. I really hope the thing holds. It went all the way on eventually. DOH! :(
I reattached the bolts and off to the other side. All that taking about 3 hours.
So we moved to the driver's side with all this gained knowledge with the hopes of this taking only about and hour. UM, YEAH - NO!
So my buddy is putting the spring compressors on with a ratcheted wrench, to same time and effort of course. Well as luck would have it the spring popped over the up of the wrench and trapped it under one of the coil. At this point we were completely vexed as to what we could do to get it off of there. We attached the other compressor and cranked it down, nothing. We took it off and moved it to another part of the spring, nothing. So basically it came down to force. We wedged to chisels under both sides of the wrench and pushed as hard as we could til that MF popped off.
OK, so back to the job. Basically did what we had done on the other side but the old axle wasn't coming out as easily and we were putting a ton of pressure on the break line. I am actually surprised we didn't break it, well it appears for now there we haven't.
After realizing that we were not gonna be able to get the axle out, and sure as hell not gonna get the new one in came plan B.
Removed nut from upper ball joint, nothing moving. Then realized the nut on the tie-rod (end of rack & pinion) need to come off too. Got that off and nothing. Perplexed. So then we took off the bolts on the upper A-arm.
This game us enuf room to get the axle out and the new one in. Took some doing to get the bolts all back in (didn't help that the stupid spring compressors were in the way.
Needless to say this axle nut went on very easily, and i put some loctite on it too. Obv not hammering the axle end helped the threading. DUH!!!
I got the torque wrench out, that i rented (prolly a waste of money since i will have it for 2 days now) and set it to 230ft/lbs. Having never used one before i was not sure what i was looking/listening for. I just pushed on it real good til it stopped moving. I just guessed that the wrench would reach 230 and then not allow me to go further. is the right? oh well, i'll see if it stays on :)
Job ended at 5:50PM.
So all-in-all a success but def a pain in the ass for reasons that i mentioned above. If i did it again i am sure i could do it in half the time at least.
Things I have questions about:
- Is it possible to tighten the nut on the lower shock too tight? I tightened it but then it got loosed after i put a lot of force on it.
- i saw that both lower ball joints had cracked rubber boots. What happens to the car when this is the case? When i go over bumps i hear a little looseness in the front end. Is this from busted ball joints?
- I didn't get my shipment from SD in time (wasn't happy) and didn't get to do the inner/outer sway bushings, and the lower shock bushing. Seems this won't be that hard in the future. True? Just take off the wheel and all the same bolts i took off before are avail to me. Yes?
In closing, i am glad the day is over with what seems to be a success. Now i gotta focus on why the car doesn't start very easily and runs rich for a good 5-10 mins (at least i can see smoke for 1 min or so, and smell gas for the next 4-9 mins)
posted by 76.217.211...
, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:37:53
, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:10:11, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:14:29, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:26:28, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:26:46
, Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:45:48, Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:51:06, Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:47:52, Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:18:44, Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:47:37
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